Friday, January 30, 2009
Ralph Summerford
Ralph Summerford, president of the firm, said the recession and lack of access to credit could create an environment that results in fraud.
“A business owner looking at his or her own numbers might have incentive to cook the books. Also, there are owners of private companies who cannot accept failure. They don’t want to cut back or lay off employees, so they will literally do anything they can to save their businesses.”
Don Mullinax
Mullinax said many organizations don’t invest sufficient time and research to monitor and research best practices for fraud detection and prevention.
He said that can create a dangerous situation in times of economic distress. He said a recent poll showed that nearly two-thirds of executives expect fraud to increase in the next two years.
Mullinax said the current economic stimulus plan working its way through Congress presents its own set of challenges.
“The economic stimulus plan currently working its way through Congress contains approximately $600 billion in spending. “Anytime this amount of money is distributed to agencies, without sufficient controls and oversight, the potential for waste, fraud and abuse increases.”